


Trapped

by JWade



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-07
Packaged: 2018-08-28 23:28:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 20,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8467018
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JWade/pseuds/JWade
Summary: Sam wrestles control of his body back from Lucifer and jumps in the pit, but the comfortable, if sparse, living room he lands in doesn't seem like it belongs in hell and where on Earth did Gabriel come from?





	1. Chapter 1

Sam finally managed to get control of Lucifer and jumped into the pit, and no one noticed the other archangel streaking after him. The next thing Sam knew he was landing on a plush couch and he heard an oof and then a crash from next to him and noticed Gabriel on the floor looking rather disgruntled. “Gabriel!” He exclaimed. “What the hell are you doing here? Where the hell is here?” 

“Damned if I know. Last thing I remember was flying into the cage trying to chase you down,” Gabriel said with a shrug as he looked around confused. 

“Wait…you were…why would you…” Sam stammered. 

“To save your stupid ass of course. Why do I do any of the suicidal shit I do?” he said annoyed as he tried to fly out only to find himself grounded. “Fuck!” 

“Well…um…thanks…I guess…but can you get us out of here now?” Sam asked trying to get annoyed himself at the implication that all the shit that Gabriel had put them through was supposed to be for his benefit. Pissing him off wouldn’t make him more inclined to help. 

“No can do, buckaroo. I’m grounded. This is apparently a no fly zone,” Gabriel told trying to keep his irritation to himself. 

Sam didn’t know how much he bought that. This obviously wasn’t the cage and Gabriel was the most powerful being on earth. There shouldn’t be anywhere else he couldn’t get in or out of. “Fine. I’ll walk,” Sam snapped and stormed out the door, only to find himself walking back in the back door. “Okay, Gabriel this isn’t funny,” he said heatedly. 

Gabriel couldn’t help but snicker. He couldn’t exactly blame Sam for thinking he was behind it. It was just the kind of thing that he would do, but this time it wasn’t him. “Actually it is kinda funny,” he said with a shrug. “But it’s not me this time. I’m as baffled as you are.”

“I’m serious, Gabriel,” Sam warned. 

“Damn it, Sam!” Gabriel snapped. “You think this is my idea of fun? You think I actually want to be trapped here, wherever here is, with you of all people? Maybe we got knocked into a different part of the cage than Michael and Lucifer, I just don’t know!”

Sam blinked a moment as he processed that theory. “You think…This is hell?” Sam asked. Granted being stuck with Gabriel wasn’t exactly his idea of a good time, but hell? He didn’t know if he’d go that far. 

“What else could it be,” Gabriel said heatedly. “We were headed for the pit and then I’m trapped here…with you. Sounds like hell to me.” Gabriel stormed into the first room he saw and slammed the door behind him. 

Sam was getting whiplash. He just couldn’t figure Gabriel out. Did he hate Sam or not? He sure acted like he hated him. He referred to being stuck with him as hell and there was no denying that he meant it, but why had he gone to the trouble of saving him then? And how was he not dead in the first place?

Gabriel found himself in a small bedroom, the large bed taking up a majority of the space and he leaned against the door, letting his head fall back against it as he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. The last thing he needed was to lose his temper in front of Sam of all people. That kid could pull correct conclusions out of his ass with the tiniest of clues and Gabriel knew he had a tendency to run off at the mouth when he got pissed…or backed into a corner, and this was about the biggest corner he could possibly be backed into. He’d meant it when he said this was pretty much hell for him. Seeing Sam all the time; a constant reminder of everything he’d given up, everything he’d sacrificed. Seeing Sam look at him with hate and disgust. Sam always assuming he was up to some kind of trick or telling some lie and refusing to actually see Gabriel. It was the worst kind of torture. Something even Lucifer couldn’t think up. He knew they weren’t actually in hell. If they were in the cage he wouldn’t have access to his powers at all and here he had limited access and if they were anywhere else in hell he would be able to fly out. So this wasn’t hell. It was some kind of alternate dimension, and he had no clue how to get out. 

He knew exactly who was behind it though so he turned his eyes skyward as they brimmed with tears. “Father, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything. I’ll do anything you want to make penance. I swear I will. Just let me out of here. Or at least let him out of here. I…I can’t be stuck here with him, Father, please. I’ll do anything. I…I’m sorry.” 

Gabriel didn’t notice Sam come in and stop in the opposite doorway. He had been exploring and noticed a second door leading off the bathroom and wanted to see where it led. Gabriel thought God was behind this? That thought was quickly followed by a pang of sympathy at how heartbroken the archangel seemed. An hour ago Sam didn’t even think he had a heart. He supposed being punished by your father after so long with no contact at all could break anyone’s heart. Whether that’s what this was or not, Gabriel seemed to think it was. Sam decided not to let Gabriel know he’d overheard him and leave him his dignity at least as he stepped back out and walked around to the other door and knocked. He’d had a reason for exploring after all. When Gabriel opened the door, Sam said, “I don’t think this is hell.”

“Why not?” Gabriel asked. He had already come to the same conclusion but how had Sam?

“Because if we were in hell I wouldn’t need to sleep and I’m exhausted,” Sam told him matter-of-factly, his eyes darting over to the large inviting looking bed. 

“Right. Have at,” Gabriel said brushing by Sam as he left the room and Sam went in and fell right asleep. Wrestling with the devil was tiring. 

When Sam woke up the next morning and walked out of the room, he stopped short at the sight of Gabriel sleeping on the couch. Since when do angels sleep? He wondered if it was just a preference for Gabriel or if there was more to it. He shrugged it off and was kind enough to try and be quiet as he made his way to the kitchen and hoped there was food here at least. He sighed with relief when he saw that the cabinets were stocked. And even more so that there was a great deal of normal food to go along with the sweets. At least whoever had stranded them here was nice enough to take that into consideration if Gabriel couldn’t use his powers. When he noticed the lack of a microwave he huffed and put a pot of water on the stove for his oatmeal as he considered their situation. 

There wasn’t much of anything in the house. There was a small couch and a coffee table in the living room. A dining room set for two in the kitchen, one bedroom with a bed and a dresser and a bathroom with all the necessary equipment. They had a fridge, a stove, and a toaster in the kitchen, but otherwise nothing. Not even a television or a radio. Lucifer had dumped his phone before he jumped in the pit and there wasn’t one here either, though Sam doubted there would be any signal even if there was a phone. There wasn’t even a book or a magazine laying around. He was just stirring up his oatmeal and wondering if the toaster would be loud enough to wake Gabriel, when the archangel woke up on his own and looked around alarmed before his eyes fell on Sam and the hunter could see the recognition in his eyes as he remembered where they were. 

“So here’s what I’m thinking,” Gabriel started. “We can sleep in shifts so we don’t have to endure each other’s presence for more than a few hours a day and there’s no reason we have to interact at all during the times we are both awake. We just try and stay out of each other’s way and deal.”

“I can live with that…except…” Sam looked around pointedly. 

“Except what?” Gabriel snapped impatiently. He was never exactly chipper when he first woke up and he was still exhausted anyway after stocking the kitchen and experimenting half the night. 

“Well there’s not exactly anything to do other than sit here and stare at the walls,” Sam said. 

Gabriel sighed. Like he hadn’t tried to do something about that. He snapped his fingers and a notebook and pen appeared in front of Sam. “I can snap up books. Anything I’ve read before. Make a list and if you want one now, you better tell me quick before I go to the bedroom and get some real sleep.”

“Why do you need to sleep?” Sam asked, curiosity overriding his other reactions. “I mean…I thought angels didn’t really need to…”

“They don’t usually, but my powers don’t work right here. They regenerate much slower which means I need sleep. Besides, as you so helpfully pointed out, it’s not like there’s anything better to do.”

“Well if you can snap up books, maybe you could do a tv or something? Once you’re rested of course.”

Gabriel snorted. “Wouldn’t do any good.”

“What do you mean?” Sam asked confused. Even if they couldn’t get cable or anything maybe they could at least watch movies. Gabriel snapped his fingers and a modest television appeared on the wall. “Thank you Gabriel,” Sam said for once completely sincere. 

“Don’t thank me yet. Turn it on,” Gabriel said wearily. 

Sam looked at him curiously and got up to go turn it on, only to jump back when it started shooting off sparks and popping. “What the hell? What did you do that for?!” Sam asked more than a little annoyed. 

“Wasn’t me. Same thing happens with stereos, phones, even those little handheld games. Everything electronic fries the second you try to use it. Must be something about this dimension that shorts them out. Between experimenting with that half the night and stocking the kitchen, I’m wiped so you have about ten second to request something before I go crash,” Gabriel said impatiently. 

“Okay…um…Chronicles of Narnia,” Sam said the first book that came to mind and he barely had time to register the snap of the fingers and the fact that the book appeared by his elbow before Gabriel was gone and the bedroom door was closed behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

Gabriel slid into bed, glad to have somewhere comfortable to sleep rather than the small stupid couch only to groan when he realized that it smelled like Sam. He was going to have to come sleep in this bed every day that smelled like Sam and there was nothing he could do about it. Even the couch would be preferable but that would keep Sam either trapped in the bedroom or tiptoeing around out there and watching him sleep which would be even worse. He would just have to deal. He couldn’t resist another plea before he fell asleep though. “Please Father. I’m sorry. Please just let me out of here.”

God, or Chuck as he went by in recent days, looked down on his son sadly. What Gabriel saw as a punishment he meant as a gift. Gabriel would see that one day. Hopefully sooner rather than later. This was his reward for trying to stop the apocalypse that was happening too soon. His reward for standing on the side of humanity the way all angels were supposed to. It didn’t make it any easier to see Gabriel suffering now though. 

Now that he was alone and awake Sam could think. He went and washed his breakfast dishes as he considered the situation. Gabriel had mentioned stocking the kitchen. Sam wasn’t sure why that surprised him, but it did. Probably because he had taken Sam’s needs into consideration as well and not just his own. He briefly wondered if Gabriel really was behind this but then remembered what he’d seen last night. Gabriel praying to his father, near tears, begging to be let out. Sam could be wrong; Gabriel was a trickster after all, but that didn’t seem like a trick. 

Sam was skeptical about the idea of God being behind this though. The guy didn’t lift a finger during the whole damn apocalypse and then jumps in just to trap them here like this. Unless he really had wanted the apocalypse to happen and he was punishing them for trying to stop it. He didn’t particularly like that idea though, so he put it out of his head. He wasn’t even comfortable with Dean’s assertions that God was a dick just like the angels. Sure the evidence seemed to point that way, but Sam wasn’t ready to give up on his image of God as a benevolent being. Maybe he could get some more information from Gabriel on why he thought God was behind it once he woke up. Hopefully even start making some headway on how to get out of here. 

Sam took his book over and sat on the couch to read. He had always wished that he could get some peace and quiet to do so with Dean always around and the television or talking or some kind of noise or activity, but now that he got his wish he found the silence deafening and more than a little uncomfortable. He took a break for lunch, wishing he actually knew how to cook, but at least Gabriel had stocked sandwich stuff so he was able to eat something. There wasn’t much though so he resigned himself to having to ask Gabriel for more if it ended up taking a while to get out of here. After lunch he was feeling a little restless so he decided to experiment a little. He tried walking out the front door again, coming in the back. Then walking out the back door coming in the front. He tried climbing out the window only to find himself back on the couch and he huffed. Whoever did this was good. Maybe he could get Gabriel to snap him up a sledgehammer and try to go through the walls. He sat back and grabbed his book again, trying to tamp down his annoyance long enough to enjoy it. 

It wasn’t until Sam started contemplating dinner that Gabriel came out of the bedroom and didn’t say a word as he went over to the table, snapped his fingers and there was a large slice of chocolate cake and a milkshake in front of him. He didn’t look completely awake, so Sam didn’t try to talk to him yet as he got up and made another sandwich. He hesitated a moment before he sat across from Gabriel at the table, but decided that he wasn’t about to eat his dinner standing at the counter and Gabriel would just have to deal. He waited until Gabriel was finished eating before he spoke, giving the archangel time to wake up. “So how do we get out of here?” he asked hoping Gabriel had some ideas now that he was well-rested. 

“We don’t,” Gabriel said shortly. 

“Yeah, that’s not gonna work for me,” Sam said firmly. 

“Well I don’t know what to tell you. We’ll get out when my father is good and ready to let us out. Not before,” Gabriel snapped. 

“What makes you think he’s behind this?” Sam asked. 

“Well for one, I’m the most powerful being on earth other than him. Even if the other archangels had devised this little trap, I would be able to feel the wards weakening as I attacked them and they couldn’t hold me for long, but this is impenetrable meaning something stronger than an archangel made them which leaves only one available option,” Gabriel explained like he was explaining to a child. 

“Well there could be sigils up blocking you or angel wards or even holy fire surrounding the house or something,” Sam pointed out. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “First of all that wouldn’t affect your ability to leave. Just mine. Secondly, I can guarantee there is no holy fire because I would feel it and even the best laid sigil wards have holes and weak spots. Not necessarily enough to escape through without a great deal of effort, but there just the same and these don’t. And lastly, we were falling into the cage. Who else could have possibly pulled us out hmm?” Gabriel said condescendingly. 

Sam sighed heavily. He had to admit that Gabriel might have a point. That it was really God that trapped them here. “But why? Why would he do that?”

“Punishment of course,” Gabriel snapped. He was so done with this conversation. “I haven’t exactly been the perfect son.”

“But why me? Why not just stick you here then?” 

“Because my father can be a real bastard sometimes,” Gabriel said as he got up and walked over to the couch signaling the end of the conversation as he snapped up a book for himself. 

For lack of anywhere else to sit but the hard dining room chairs or the floor, Sam sighed and went and sat next to Gabriel on the couch with his own book. Gabriel huffed and shifted as far away from Sam as he could which wasn’t far since this was only a two seater before he got up and went back to the bedroom. “Just let me know when you want to go to bed,” Gabriel said impatiently as he closed the door behind him. He knew his punishment was to be close to Sam, but he had no intention of doing so any more than absolutely necessary. 

Sam was left very disgruntled sitting there by himself. Not only had he gotten very little in the way of answers from Gabriel, but the archangel was treating him like a leper. It was rude and even a little hurtful. He pushed it from his mind. What more did he expect from an archangel turned monster? He instead considered the answers he did get. It was pretty certain God was behind this somehow and Gabriel was sure it was meant as a punishment for him but where did Sam come in? Gabriel had dodged that question rather neatly. When he realized that he didn’t have anywhere near enough information to figure that out, he thought about the rest of what Gabriel had said. One thing in particular stuck in his mind. The fact that he would feel the holy fire. The way he said it seemed like it was different than other wards and traps and sigil and he wondered what else it did and how he would feel it and resolved to ask later. He didn’t care if it made Gabriel uncomfortable. He just needed to hear someone speak about something, even if it was snippy. All this silence was driving him nuts. 

It was a few hours later before sheer boredom had Sam going to bed. He had finished his book and left a list of other books he’d like to read that he had put more thought into than the first one. He remembered what Gabriel said about only being able to snap up books that he’d read so he tried to pick books that might appeal to the archangel in the hopes that he had read them. He’d also added a note to ask if Gabriel could get him some books on warding. Maybe he could find some way out that Gabriel missed, at least for himself. 

When Sam knocked on the bedroom door, it was only a second before it opened and Gabriel brushed past him and went for the couch. Sam was a little less sure of asking Gabriel the question he wanted to ask seeing his mood but doubted his mood would get much better so he just bit the bullet. “What did you mean by ‘you would feel the holy fire’?” 

“What does it matter?” Gabriel snapped. 

“I…um…I just…” Sam couldn’t think of a good reason beyond curiosity and he doubted that would get much of a response from Gabriel. 

Gabriel decided to answer the question anyway just so that Sam would think twice about ever trapping another angel like that…if he ever got out of here and got the chance that is. “What do you think fire feels like? Except instead of burning my body it burns my grace making it unusable. That’s how it works. Everything inside the circle burns. Happy now?” Sam gaped at him for a moment, remembering how they had trapped him after tv land and suddenly feeling a pang of remorse for that. “What?” Gabriel snapped as Sam just stood there staring at him. 

“I…I’m sorry…about…about trapping you like that,” he said hesitantly. 

“Whatever,” Gabriel waved him off. “Good night Sam,” he said with a note of finality. 

Sam sighed. “Good night,” he said as he went to bed.


	3. Chapter 3

Once Sam was in bed, Gabriel found himself even more unnerved by the silence than he was before, and even more overcome by boredom since he wasn’t sulking now and now didn’t even have the option to end it by going to talk to Sam. Well technically he could be an asshole and go wake him up if he felt the need for conversation, but the last thing he wanted was Sam hating him even more. Not to mention he was determined to avoid the hunter as much as possible and that would rather defeat the purpose. It didn’t make him go any less crazy though, but then he had an idea. Every time he tried to snap up some more furniture it just crumbled which made sense if his father’s goal was to make him be close to Sam but maybe something that wasn’t furniture…He snapped his fingers and a piano appeared in the room and he gave a soft smile. 

It remained to be seen if it would work, but it looked okay. He would wait until Sam woke up to test it though. He hated the idea of opening himself up to more ridicule by the hunter, not to mention letting Sam see that part of him, but if he didn’t do something against this oppressive silence he was going to go mad. Now that there was an end in sight he found himself in a slightly better mood and sang quietly to himself as he read. He took care not to be too loud lest Sam hear him, but at least it was something.

When he heard Sam moving around and the shower start up, he got up and went over to the piano, sitting gently on the bench, wanting to make sure it would hold and he wasn’t about to get dumped on the floor…again. When it did, he smiled and reached over to press the keys, playing a few scales to make sure it was working like it should before he just started playing. He didn’t pay much attention to what he was playing, he was just playing. His eyes drifted closed as he lost himself in the music, right up until he was startled out of his wits by a hand on his shoulder and he jumped up on spun around. “Jesus, Sam. At least I waited until you were awake,” he said irritated, trying to head off the rant he was sure was coming. 

“I…I didn’t…um…” Sam tried to collect himself from the startle he’d gotten when Gabriel jumped and the sudden silence in the room. When he’d heard the music from the shower he’d assumed that Gabriel had gotten a radio working, but when he’d walked out and seen the archangel sitting at a piano, he’d stopped and listened for a moment to the haunting melody he was playing. He’d tried to talk to Gabriel a couple times, but he must not have heard him, hence his approach. “I was just gonna say…it was pretty and I didn’t know you could play,” he said as he collected himself. 

“Oh,” Gabriel deflated. “Thanks. I just needed to fill the silence with something before I went nuts.”

“That’s okay. I like it,” Sam told him as he made his way to the kitchen to start on his breakfast. 

When Gabriel saw him pull out the oatmeal again and put a pot of water on the stove, he furrowed his brow. “I stocked eggs and bacon and pancake mix and all kinds of stuff for breakfast. You don’t have to keep having oatmeal.”

“I…um…can’t cook,” Sam said sheepishly. 

Gabriel rolled his eyes. “Like…at all? Come on,” he said disbelievingly.

“Not at all. Motels don’t exactly have kitchens and I’ve never lived anywhere else,” Sam said defensively. 

“Come here. I’ll teach you,” Gabriel said with a sigh. He had no intention of being called on to snap up whatever meal struck the hunter’s fancy but he could teach him to fend for himself at least. ‘Teach a man to fish’ as it were. 

“You can cook?” Sam asked. He was getting rather inundated with new information about the archangel this morning and he’d only been awake for half an hour. 

“Sure. I’ve been around a really long time and I get bored easily,” Gabriel said with a shrug. “Learning new things is a good way to pass the time.”

That answered Sam’s question as to whether he had to learn or could just give himself the ability. “You don’t have to…teach me I mean,” Sam said uncomfortably. Part of him didn’t want to owe Gabriel anything when they managed to get out of this, but part of him just didn’t want to intrude when Gabriel obviously wanted nothing to do with him. 

“Nonsense. You can’t live on oatmeal and sandwiches all the time,” Gabriel told him. 

Sam couldn’t really argue with that and who knew how long they would be stuck here so he reluctantly agreed. He wondered why Gabriel didn’t just snap him up his meals. It would be an inconvenience sure, but not nearly as much as teaching him to cook. 

Gabriel started simple, with scrambled eggs and bacon. It was really hard to mess up scrambled eggs and bacon. He took an egg and showed Sam how to crack it and put it in the bowl and then let Sam do the next two. Once he was done, Gabriel took the bowl and picked the small shell pieces out before he grabbed a fork to show Sam how to whip them before handing it over to start on the bacon. He explained how to lay out the bacon on the skillet as he did so before going back to check on Sam’s progress. He snorted a laugh. “No, like this,” he said putting his hand over Sam’s and trying to show him, but Sam was too tense for Gabriel to maneuver his hand. At least not without breaking it. “Relax your hand and let me show you,” Gabriel said impatiently and Sam did so with a sheepish apology. Once Sam had the hang of it Gabriel pulled out another smaller skillet for the eggs and a little while later, Sam had a nice breakfast. 

“Thanks, Gabriel,” Sam said actually sincere as he sat down to eat. 

Gabriel just nodded and moved back to the piano. That had been harder than he thought. Not the actual teaching part. Sam was a quick study. But being so close to him, talking to him, even touching him, knowing that he could never have more…it was torture, but that was what he was here for after all. Another heartbreakingly haunting melody rose from the piano as Sam ate his breakfast and he found himself reconsidering everything he thought he knew about the archangel. Well, maybe not everything. Whatever else he was, he was still a murderer, but he supposed even murderers had more to them than that. Still, the music was beautiful and he could tell that Gabriel was lost in it which meant he did have more depth of emotion than Sam had thought. You can’t play something like that without feeling it. Even Sam knew that much. 

After breakfast, Sam noticed the stack of books on the coffee table and went over to pick one. It seemed like Gabriel had been able to get everything on Sam’s list and he found himself wondering just how well-read Gabriel was too. He picked one and pretended to read as he just listened to the sorrowful music echoing through the room. When Gabriel stopped a couple hours later and went to bed without a word, Sam felt the loss as the silence that had seemed so oppressive yesterday, was nearly drowning him now. He absentmindedly wondered if this was how people felt when they went to the symphony and it ended. 

Sam decided to try and make some spaghetti for lunch. It couldn’t be that hard to make pasta. He followed the directions and managed well enough, glad that Gabriel had stocked some sauce rather than have him try to make some himself which he wouldn’t even dare attempt. He would have liked some meatballs or chicken with it, but decided not to push his luck. One cooking lesson did not an expert make. Sam had already finished his dinner, sticking with a sandwich this time, before Gabriel got up and headed for the table for his traditional ‘breakfast’ of chocolate cake and a milkshake before going back to the piano. He only had a few hours a day when they were both awake and he intended to make the most of it. 

Before he could start playing though, Sam couldn’t help but ask, “Can you play any other instruments?” 

“Why? Sick of the piano already,” Gabriel asked shortly. 

“No. Just…I’m curious is all,” Sam said with a shrug. 

“I can play any instrument,” Gabriel told him and ended the conversation by starting to play.


	4. Chapter 4

When Sam got up to go to bed, Gabriel stopped playing and started to get up from the piano, but Sam said, “You can…you know…keep playing for a while…if you want.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow before a slight, barely there smile, appeared on his face and he turned around and started playing again, this time an arrangement of Brahm’s Lullaby. Sam rolled his eyes good-naturedly as he headed off to bed. He had to admit it was kinda nice falling asleep to a lullaby, having never had that experience as a child. He wouldn’t be caught dead admitting it though, especially not to Gabriel. 

Gabriel kept playing for another hour, until he was sure Sam was good and asleep, but didn’t want to push his luck by keeping it up all night. As an archangel he had an eidetic memory, so reading a book he had already read was an exercise in boredom, but he didn’t exactly have anything else to do so he endured, waiting until Sam was in the shower again before going back to the piano. He was glad that Sam enjoyed the music. At least it was something he could do without getting snapped at and hateful looks all the time. He hadn’t even noticed the fact that Sam had been quite reasonable since they’d been stuck here and had done very little snapping. In fact, it was Gabriel doing most of the snapping, but like the hunter, Gabriel saw what he expected to see. 

When Sam came out of the bathroom he, once again, stopped to listen for a few minutes. The music seemed a little more happy today, but still had that underlying sad haunted air to it. Sam wondered if what Gabriel played reflected what he was feeling before he put it out of his head. He had no interest in what Gabriel was feeling. They were just trying to get through this without killing each other. That’s all. Sam just wished he knew why it bothered Gabriel so much. Sam knew better now than to touch Gabriel while he was lost in the music like that and instead stepped over into his line of sight and waited until Gabriel noticed him. He still jumped, but not as violently as before. 

“What?” Gabriel asked in an almost neutral tone of voice. He wasn’t used to anyone else being around while he played and it always caught him off guard and he hated being caught off guard, but it was his own fault for not paying attention. 

“I was thinking…I want to make breakfast, but I was hoping…maybe you could watch and make sure I don’t mess anything up?” Sam suggested hopefully. Truth was he just wanted a chance to talk to Gabriel, but it was as good an excuse as any, and not one he would be able to use for much longer so should take advantage of it while he could. 

“Yeah, okay,” Gabriel said with a shrug as he got up and followed Sam to the kitchen. 

Gabriel was just pulling out the bowl to whip the eggs in when Sam asked, “So why does it bother you so much being stuck here with ME?” 

The glass bowl shattered in Gabriel's hands and he was left holding broken shards. “Drop it, Sam,” he said dangerously as he snapped his fingers and the bowl reformed. 

“No, I wanna know, Gabriel. You have to give me something. I mean, if anything I should be the one pissed about being stuck with YOU, but I’m…”

“That! Right there! That’s why it bothers me, Sam!” Gabriel cut him off heatedly. “You look at me and you see a monster and that’s all you’ll ever see. Forget the fact that you spent most of a year fucking a damn demon, and even falling for her, but no. Your friendly neighborhood trickster is just a monster. Make your own damn breakfast,” Gabriel snapped slamming the bowl none too gently on the counter, barely managing not to break it again as he stormed to the bedroom and slammed the door. 

Sam just stood there, struck dumb with not only the fact that Gabriel apparently cared what he thought about him, but also the fact that he’d had his biggest and costliest mistake just thrown in his face like that. Part of him wanted to chase Gabriel down and yell at him, but he stopped himself. He’d gotten his answer, as much as it confused him, and there was no need to make things more difficult by starting a fight. He would wait until Gabriel was calmer to bring it up again. They were stuck whether they liked it or not. They could at least find a way to be cordial. Sam managed to cook his own breakfast. It didn’t come out great, but it wasn’t bad either. When Gabriel didn’t come out, Sam figured he went ahead and went to sleep.

Sam would have been right to a point. Once Gabriel slammed the door behind him, the tears that he’d been trying to hold in since they got here finally started to fall. Why the hell couldn’t Sam just leave well enough alone. They had been working, damn it. They had been managing to stay out of each other’s way and not fight or bring up painful subjects and yeah, not talk at all, but that was about the best case scenario Gabriel could expect out of this. Sam just couldn’t leave it alone though. He just had to keep pushing. Gabriel curled up in the bed and cried himself to sleep and he doubted it would be the last time. 

When Gabriel got up and went to the table to eat, Sam quickly got up and made his own sandwich, waiting until Gabriel was halfway done with his ‘breakfast’ before speaking to give the archangel a chance to wake up a little bit. “Ruby was a monster too and I was just too blind to see it at the time, but the difference is if I were stuck here with Ruby I wouldn’t hesitate to do anything in my power to kill her. I haven’t even considered killing you yet, but yes. I see you as a monster because you kill people. Archangel or not, you kill people.”

The only reason Sam got that far into his speech is because Gabriel’s mouth was too full to talk, but he definitely had something to say to that. “And did you ever think about what kind of people I kill, Sam?” he asked heatedly. 

“You killed a teacher and a scientist and possibly a jerk journalist that I know of,” Sam snapped. 

“No. I killed a rapist and a murderer and that jerk journalist was back home with his family in less than a week. You just see what you want to see Sam. You always have,” Gabriel snapped as he got up from the table and went to the piano and what he was playing this time seemed more angry than sad and Sam at least had his answer about whether Gabriel’s music reflected his mood. 

He had a lot more answers than that really and needed time to ruminate on them so in a way it was good that Gabriel ended the conversation where he had. Sam wanted to know more. If those people were really what Gabriel said and how he knew and what other kinds of people he killed, because Sam was sure there were plenty more that he didn’t know about, but he already had the answers to most of those questions deep down. He just had to accept them. What gave him the most pause was Gabriel’s assertion that Sam only sees what he wants to see. Was that true? Was he really so blind and narrowminded? He didn’t want to think so, but if he had missed all that…what else had he missed?

He was still lost in thought when he got up and went to bed a few hours later. He called out a goodnight that Gabriel should be able to hear over the music and he knew the archangel had heard him when the dark angry tones morphed into something soft and soothing. It was like nothing Sam had ever heard before, but it was unmistakably a lullaby. 

Gabriel had every intention of easing off on the angst when Sam went to bed and playing him something he could sleep to. He had no idea why it became an old Enochian lullaby though. Granted it’s natural form could be played on any human instrument or perceived by any human ears, but he had written his own arrangement a long time ago in one of his more homesick periods and playing it now just brought him back to that. He remembered singing it to the little seraphs and he didn’t even realize that the words were now accompanying the music as he got lost in memories of better times. 

Sam heard Gabriel’s voice join the music and his eyes widened. He had never heard Gabriel sing before. He had never even considered the idea of Gabriel singing, but the archangel had such an amazing voice, rich and deep and soothing, and even his own inner turmoil couldn’t keep the beautiful melody from lulling him into a deep sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning by the time Sam got out of the shower, he had come to the conclusion that Gabriel wasn’t a monster. What he was, Sam didn’t know. He didn’t think he would ever be okay with Gabriel killing people, no matter what they’d done to deserve it, but that didn’t make him a monster, assuming of course that Sam was right in his assumption that those were the only people he killed, though judging by the fact that the frat kid and the journalist survived that was a good bet. The one thing he couldn’t get over though was mystery spot. Dean had been brought back though so no. Gabriel wasn’t a monster. Just an asshole. Asshole he could live with. 

He again stopped in the doorway to plan his words before he interrupted the music which, this morning, was sorrowful and also frustrated if Sam had to put an emotion to it. “Gabriel!” He called over the music and the archangel just played louder. “Gabriel!” Sam yelled walking around into his line of sight but Gabriel pointedly looked away from him and ignored him. Sam huffed and leaned over throwing an arm over the keys and pining Gabriel’s arms down and Gabriel looked over at him with a blistering glare and Sam was glad that even from archangels, looks couldn’t kill, because he would have been a pile of goo on the floor. “You’re not a monster,” Sam said quickly. 

“I know that,” Gabriel snarled. 

“And so do I,” Sam said lifting his arms and walking away, leaving Gabriel to do whatever he wanted to do now that he had said his piece. Sam smiled a little as he noticed the music start back up with considerably less frustration than it had before. His breakfast was a little better today than it was yesterday and he felt like he was getting the hang of this cooking thing. Maybe he would even expand his horizons a bit. He wasn’t going to ask Gabriel for any more lessons but left a note on his booklist for a basic cookbook figuring Gabriel would have an idea what he was capable of at this point. He wasn’t about to interrupt Gabriel again to ask. 

It wasn’t long before Gabriel went to bed, again without a word, leaving the echoing silence behind him and Sam wondered if things would be better when Gabriel woke up. If Gabriel would actually talk to him. Sam missed talking to someone. They had been here for days now and they had barely spoken and when they did Gabriel was always pissed or on edge, with the exception of their one cooking lesson which was surprisingly pleasant. 

Sam soon realized that his hopes were unfounded. Gabriel was slightly less on edge, but he still avoided Sam like the plague and every time Sam tried to make conversation he got snapped at, so Sam didn’t try much and just kept observing the archangel trying to figure him out. Gabriel said he hated being here with him because Sam thought of him as a monster and they had corrected that assumption so what was his issue now? 

Now that he wasn’t thinking of Gabriel as a monster or a murderer, he was able to see him better and he could tell that Gabriel felt things a lot deeper than he wanted anyone to see. Sam could only see it through his music, but it told a story. Gabriel was drowning in sorrow and pain and Sam had no idea how to help him. He didn’t even know what was wrong. All he had was the assumption that Gabriel was upset that his father returned just to punish him, but even that didn’t seem like enough. Sam decided he had to bite the bullet. The only way he knew to get anything out of Gabriel was to piss him off and hope he let something slip so the next morning when he got up he did the one thing he knew would get the archangel mad. Just talking to him seemed to piss him off pretty easily, but this was quicker and more definite. He walked over to the piano and put his arm over the keys again, stopping Gabriel from playing and sure enough that withering glare was turned to him immediately. “I am sick of you walking around here avoiding me like the plague. What the hell is your problem?” Sam asked heatedly. 

“You don’t want to do this, Sam,” Gabriel warned dangerously. 

“Yes. I do,” Sam said hatefully. “I’m done with your bullshit temper tantrums. Oh poor me, Daddy hates me. Well join the club and get over it!” Sam was doing everything he could to make Gabriel lose it and it worked. 

“That has nothing to do with it!” Gabriel snapped. 

“Oh then what is then? Huh? What could possibly make you walk around here like such an asshole all the time?”

“Because I gave you up! I came to terms with that! Now I’m stuck here, seeing you every day, having all my failures and everything I lost thrown in my face constantly! I’m stuck here with you looking at me like…like that!” Gabriel yelled before he suddenly stopped himself from speaking and stormed to the bedroom slamming the door behind him. He had said too much. Just like he always did when he got mad. He comforted himself with the fact that Sam would never allow himself to just see Gabriel. All he would ever see is the monster, no matter what he said on the matter. As much as that killed him, at least it would make Sam less likely to figure out the truth. 

Sam followed him, completely fed up with this whole yell and run thing Gabriel had going. He was going to find out what the hell Gabriel meant if it killed him…and a pissed off archangel just might. He stormed into the room behind Gabriel and said, “Oh no. You don’t get to do that. I’m sick of your yelling at me and then storming off…”

“I ‘storm off’ because if I don’t I might say something we both regret so do yourself a favor and get out,” Gabriel snarled. 

“No. I want to know what you meant by ‘you gave me up’. What did you lose? What failures are you talking about?” 

“Fine! You really want to know?! I knew going into that whole mystery spot disaster that you would never forgive me for it. That you would hate me forever, but I figured it was worth it. It didn’t matter as long as I could save you from your destiny. If I could teach you to let go then Lucifer would never get released and you would never have to carry that guilt. You would never have to become the thing you hated most and that was worth it. I sacrificed everything on that gamble and for what? Nothing! I failed! And now you’re here rubbing it in my face every fucking day and I can’t take it okay? So just stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours and hopefully my bastard father will let us out of here sooner rather than later and then we never have to see each other again.”

“That was what mystery spot was about? Keeping me from freeing Lucifer? Why wouldn’t you just say so and save us all the trouble?!” Sam asked heatedly. 

“Oh yeah. A monster telling you not to kill a demon. That would have gone over well. I’m sure you would have listened,” Gabriel said sarcastically. 

“If you had told me what you really were I might have!” Sam shot back. 

“Oh so I’m supposed to just walk up and tell someone who wants to kill me my deepest darkest secret? That they probably wouldn’t even believe anyway. I told you as much as I could. I begged you to listen to me. You didn’t. And now you’re trying to blame it on me?! Screw you Winchester,” Gabriel shoved him out the door hard enough for him to land on his ass on the floor and slammed it behind him yet again. 

Sam winced when he heard that there was a new instrument in the house. Apparently Gabriel felt the need to beat something and a drum set worked well for that need. He had a lot to think about. Gabriel was cryptic as always, but not nearly as much so as usual. He just needed to work out what the archangel meant. Read between the lines as it were. Sam was good at that. Usually. He would figure it out before long.


	6. Chapter 6

The first thing Sam needed to process was the fact that Mystery Spot had been an attempt to keep him from releasing Lucifer. Gabriel was trying to get him used to Dean’s death. Teach him to let go, so he would go so far and Sam, try as he might, couldn’t hate him for it anymore. Not knowing what it was trying to prevent. Just like that the last of the animosity Sam had for Gabriel vanished. Oh it still hurt. Remembering the Mystery Spot would always hurt, but he couldn’t hate Gabriel for it anymore. Sam thought on what Gabriel had said about giving him up, about how he’d known that Sam would never forgive him for it but did it anyway to try and save him and Sam started to form a suspicion. Could Gabriel actually have a thing for him? 

Sam considered the possibility and realized that he wasn’t exactly opposed to it. Not now with all this new information. He wasn’t exactly gung-ho about it just for the fact that he didn’t really know Gabriel that well, but he wanted to. He would be willing to see what they could have. If it could go anywhere. What little he did know, he found intriguing and once all the anger and bitterness faded, he could see that. He still wasn’t sure if he was right though or if he was reading too much into it, but he formed a plan to test his theory. He knew better than to actually come out and ask after all. 

Sam walked back into the room, about an hour after Gabriel had, quite literally, thrown him out and walked over to where Gabriel was still playing the drums, grabbed his face in his hands and leaned down to kiss him. Gabriel’s reaction would tell him all he needed to know and it was very telling indeed. Gabriel was suddenly off the stool and pressing Sam tightly against the wall, plundering the hunter’s mouth with his tongue and damned if Sam couldn’t help but kiss him back. When Sam felt Gabriel’s erection pressing against him he knew he should stop this, but when Gabriel ripped his shirt open, popping all the buttons off in the process and shoved it roughly off his shoulders, all good sense flew out of Sam’s head and his little brain took over. 

Gabriel knew this was a mistake. He knew it didn’t mean to Sam what it did to him. He knew it was gonna hurt like a bitch when it was over. He just couldn’t help himself. The second Sam’s lips touched his, he didn’t care one bit about mistakes. He just had to push this as far as Sam would let him. Get a least a taste of what he’d always wanted. Even if that was all he ever got. Sam seemed content to just let him take for a while, but once the hunter’s shirt was off, Sam was just as into it as Gabriel was and the archangel could feel Sam’s cock hardening against his own as Sam yanked Gabriel’s shirt over his head. 

Gabriel’s hands moved to the front of Sam’s pants, hoping that Sam wasn’t about to stop him and when Sam’s hands started fumbling with Gabriel’s belt the archangel resisted his sigh of relief. This was actually gonna happen. He would know what it felt like to be inside Sam. He would know what Sam looked like when he came, what he felt like, what he tasted like. He turned his attention to Sam’s neck, with hard bites and sucks as he shoved Sam’s pants down, followed by his own right around the time Sam wrapped his hand around Gabriel’s cock and Gabriel whimpered and bit Sam almost hard enough to draw blood. Gabriel lifted Sam’s leg over his arm and slid a lubed finger in Sam’s tight ass, moving fast and frantically as Sam’s hand wrapped around both of their cocks stroking them together. 

Gabriel prepped Sam as quick as humanly possible. On the off chance he ever got another shot at this he could go slow and sweet. Right now, he just wanted to get this show on the road before Sam changed his mind. He hooked his other arm under Sam’s other leg and lifted him effortlessly, impaling the hunter on his large cock and slamming him back into the wall again. 

When Sam felt Gabriel lift him up, he was gone. He knew about angelic strength of course, but actually seeing it in action in this sort of situation was a different story. For someone used to being bigger and stronger than everyone else, being manhandled and dominated like this was intoxicating and when he was slammed into the wall as Gabriel’s cock pounded into him he felt like he was already about to blow. He reached down to stroke himself only to find both of his hands pinned to the wall above his head by one of Gabriel’s while the archangel’s other hand reached down to stroke Sam and his lips captured the hunter’s again, biting Sam’s lip roughly in the process. 

Gabriel quickly picked up on the fact that Sam wanted to be dominated and he had no trouble at all fulfilling that desire and he could feel Sam getting more and more worked up with everything he did and when Gabriel felt the hunter teetering on that edge he moved over and bit his earlobe growling, “Cum, Sam,” and the hunter was gone, coming in spurts over Gabriel’s hand as Gabriel pounded into him a few more times before blowing himself. As he rode out the high he rested his forehead against Sam’s chest surrepticiously licking up some of the hunter’s cum as he waited for the blow to fall and fall it did. 

It was less than a minute before Sam pushed him gently away and said, “I…we…shouldn’t have done that…I…”

Yep. It hurt like a bitch. Gabriel hadn’t been prepared for just how much though as he shoved away, forcing himself to pretend that it didn’t matter in the slightest as he said, “Yeah, whatever. Now get out and let me sleep.”

“Gabriel…” Sam started to reach toward him, wanting to talk about it…despite having no idea what to say. 

“Jesus, Sam. No need to be a little girl about it. We’ve been stuck here for a while, got a little horny and had a roll in the hay. It’s not a big deal. Now I’m tired so get out,” Gabriel said, back to the hunter as he pulled his boxers back on and walked over to the bed. 

Sam bit his lip nervously, but given that he couldn’t think of anything to say anyway, he didn’t see another choice but to leave and let Gabriel sleep. He didn’t miss the fact that Gabriel wouldn’t even face him and he definitely didn’t miss the little tremor in the archangel’s voice at the end there and he knew he had an answer to his question at least, even if it had gone way too far. 

Once Gabriel heard the door close behind Sam, he stopped holding back the tears that were falling anyway as he curled up into a ball and cried. One day he would look back on this memory as the closest he ever got to everything he ever wanted, but right now…it was too fresh. Too raw. He felt like he couldn’t breathe as the hunter walked away. It meant nothing to Sam, but to Gabriel it was everything and when he woke up he would have to walk out there and face Sam like it was just as meaningless to him as it was to Sam and he didn’t know if he could do it. He didn’t know how. Gabriel once again cried himself to sleep as he wondered how he was going to make it through this at all. Forget in one piece. That ship had already sailed.


	7. Chapter 7

After leaving the bedroom, Sam jumped in the shower to clean himself off before eating his delayed breakfast which by this point was more like brunch as he got lost in thought. He tried to spend the day reading as usual but didn’t even get a page read as his mind kept replaying the feel of Gabriel inside, Gabriel’s hands moving over him, the way Gabriel had effortlessly dominated him. He recalled the feel of Gabriel’s smooth skin beneath his hands, the smell of peppermint and sea breeze that he recognized as uniquely Gabriel, the taste of Gabriel’s lips. He knew that things had gone too far and he knew that he had hurt Gabriel and he was sorry for that, but for the life of him he couldn’t be sorry that it happened. 

He had come to the conclusion that Gabriel was in love with him, but Sam couldn’t say he felt the same way. He couldn’t shake the fact that he barely knew Gabriel at all. He knew now that there could be something. He was pretty sure he wanted there to be something, but if Gabriel didn’t stop pushing him away he didn’t know how to explore that possibility. He had to find a way to get the archangel to open up. Preferably a way that didn’t involve pissing him off and hoping for the best. Maybe after Gabriel woke up he could get him to talk. 

When Gabriel finally emerged from the room, Sam sat at the table with him, despite having already eaten and said, “Gabriel, can we talk?”

“Nothing to talk about,” Gabriel said shortly. 

“I disagree,” Sam said evenly. 

“Tough.”

“Well then I’m just gonna talk and you can listen…” Sam started only to be cut off. 

“Look, Sam. I know you’ve figured out how I feel about you and I don’t want or need your pity so save it,” Gabriel snapped. 

“It’s not pity,” Sam said firmly. “I just…I don’t really know you Gabriel. I want to…but you just keep pushing me away. How can I know what I want from this if you won’t even let me get close?”

Gabriel scoffed. “You’ve seen more of me than anyone ever has since the day I left heaven. You know everything you need to know to know that you don’t want me and you’re better off without me. I don’t care that you’re lonely. Don’t use me to get over it,” Gabriel snapped again as he got up from the table and went for the piano to drown out anything else Sam might want to say. 

Sam huffed as he was left sitting alone at the table and decided to take the time to think over what Gabriel had said before going back at him. Gabriel thought what they had this morning was a pity fuck and Sam could see why he would get that impression, but that wasn’t it at all. Sure, the kiss had started out as an experiment and all, but then Sam just got lost in Gabriel. He didn’t not want him. He found him intoxicating. It wasn’t because he was lonely. He was lonely of course, but he didn’t want to ‘use’ Gabriel because he was lonely. 

As he listened to the beautiful music coming from the piano, trying to pick exactly what Gabriel was feeling out of the melody, he realized what Gabriel had meant when he’d said Sam had seen more of him than anyone ever had. He had noticed that every time they’d met before this, Gabriel had tight masks in place, using sarcasm and amusement to hide behind and at the time Sam had thought that was the real Gabriel. He really had only seen what he wanted to see. Now though, now he knew that Gabriel felt things deeply. So deeply that he probably kept those masks up to protect himself as much as possible. He hid because he couldn’t face all this in front of other people. He couldn’t show weakness to potential enemies. 

Sam thought about everything he knew about archangels. How they were sharp swords. Heaven’s strongest weapons. Ruthless and cunning and cold. He could see a little bit of that in Gabriel, but he would wager that Gabriel saw his emotions as a weakness. One that he couldn’t manage to escape. He thought about their past. The first time they had met, they had called him a monster and tried to kill him while he was protecting people from real human monsters. What about that encounter could have possibly made Gabriel fall in love with him? Or even just like him a little too much? Sam wasn’t sure if Gabriel had been in love with him by that point, but there had obviously been something there judging by the way he talked about the mystery spot. 

Mystery spot was a whole other can of worms. He’d tried to kill Gabriel and Gabriel had still tried to save him from himself, making his own sacrifices to be able to do so. He had to admit that Gabriel was right that he probably wouldn’t have believed that he was an archangel if he’d told him, and he probably wouldn’t have believed that killing Lilith could be anything but a good thing. Not to mention he’d had a point about revealing his greatest secret to someone who hated him, because at the time, Sam had. He’d hated him with a passion. He never would have understood, but Gabriel still tried.

Looking at tv land with new eyes, he could understand Gabriel’s point there too. He’d thought there wasn’t another way. That much was obvious. He’d said then that he just wanted it to be over, but did he mean with his family or with Sam. He could imagine that the thought of Sam becoming Lucifer would have been torture for him and he wanted to get it over with. Somehow they had given him hope that there could be another way and the information that Gabriel got about the keys to the cage couldn’t have been easy to find. Now that he was paying attention he could tell that Gabriel didn’t look so good when he came for them at that hotel. He had lost weight, was a little paler, and looked generally tired and Sam wondered how much he had run himself into the ground trying to find that information. 

Then he had thrown himself in front of Lucifer to give them a chance to escape. Sam didn’t know how he survived or even if he had. Cas had been brought back after all. Why couldn’t Gabriel have been too. The fact that Gabriel had left them that message meant that he either hadn’t expected to survive or hadn’t expected there to be enough of him left to help him if he did. And then he threw himself into the cage to try and save Sam. He must have known it was a long shot. If it was that easy to fly in and out, Lucifer could have done it too. He had risked trapping himself in literal hell on the off chance that he could get Sam out and then ended up thrown here as a punishment with the one person who reminded him of everything that he’d lost. 

Sam could feel Gabriel’s pain through his music and it broke his heart. Gabriel was right. Sam did know him. Better than he thought he had. Better than he thought possible given the little time they’d spent together. It was a new thing for him getting to know someone without long conversations and time spent together, but he did. He knew very little about Gabriel’s life, but he knew GABRIEL and that was all he needed to know to figure out that he could easily fall in love with the archangel if he let himself. The problem was, Gabriel would never believe it. He thought Sam either pitied him or was just lonely and latching onto the only person here. It wouldn’t be easy to get him to see, but Sam wasn’t a Winchester for nothing. Doing the impossible was just another day and he began to formulate a plan. 

The only time they had spent any pleasant time together here was when Gabriel was teaching him how to cook. Sam had the basics down now though and was doing well on his own, but maybe there was something else Gabriel could teach him. Something more meaningful. His eyes lit on the piano. He had always wanted to learn to play an instrument and he did like the piano. Maybe he could get Gabriel to open up that way. Show him that he wanted to be with him. It was late though and Sam was tired. And he didn’t really want to interrupt Gabriel anyway so he just called a goodnight and listened with a smile as the song morphed into another lullaby. He hoped Gabriel would sing again. It had only happened once, but Sam loved hearing Gabriel sing.


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, Sam headed out and made his breakfast while fondly watching Gabriel play. After he ate he walked over into Gabriel’s line of sight and Gabriel didn’t stop playing, but quirked an eyebrow in question. Sam said over the music, “Will you teach me to play?” Gabriel just snapped his fingers without missing a beat in the music and a book appeared in Sam’s hand, ‘Piano for Beginners’. Sam sighed. He should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. He sat down on the edge of the bench and said, “No. I want YOU to teach me to play.”

Gabriel stopped playing and narrowed his eyes at Sam. “Why?” he asked suspiciously. 

Sam sputtered for a moment. He should have expected the question. He should have prepared for it, but he was caught off guard and tried to think of an answer Gabriel would accept. ‘I want to spend time with you because I might just be falling in love with you’ was not an answer Gabriel would accept and would probably get him snapped at and Gabriel storming out again. “Because I can’t learn from a book and you’re a good teacher,” Sam said the first thing that came to mind. 

“And the fact that I don’t want to teach you means nothing?” Gabriel asked annoyed. He didn’t want to be forced into more proximity with Sam. He didn’t want to spend more time with him just to make him fall deeper and deeper for someone he could never have. 

“Please, Gabriel?” Sam asked hopefully, giving Gabriel his best puppy eyes. 

Gabriel sighed. Like he had ever been able to resist that look from Sam. He didn’t know what Sam’s sudden interest was in the piano, but he supposed it had been the same as his when he first started learning. Boredom. It was Gabriel’s fault that Sam was stuck here anyway. It was his punishment that Sam was just a pawn for. It was only fair that he try and help Sam’s boredom. “Fine,” he said defeatedly. “Just read the first chapter of the book first so you can at least understand what I’ll be teaching you.”

“Fair enough,” Sam said cheerfully as he picked the book back up and headed back to the couch to start studying while Gabriel went back to playing. He wouldn’t end up getting much studying done though until about an hour later when Gabriel went to bed, he was so enamored with watching Gabriel play. He heard the music take on a more frustrated tone after his request, but he didn’t really expect any less. To Gabriel, it was just forcing him to spend more time with someone he wanted but thought he could never have. 

When Gabriel got up to go to bed he told Sam, “Give me an hour to get good and asleep and then you can play around with it a little if you want. I’m not easy to wake up.” 

“Thank you, Gabriel,” Sam said sincerely. 

“Whatever,” the archangel grumbled as he headed to bed wondering what he had gotten himself into. 

Once Gabriel was in bed, Sam put the book down. He had every intention of doing what Gabriel had asked, and maybe even playing around with the piano since Gabriel said it wouldn’t disturb him, but there was something else he wanted to do too. All part of his plan to get Gabriel to warm up to him. He had been getting better with the cooking thing once he realized that it was mostly just a matter of following directions and since Gabriel had showed him some of the basics like the difference between whip and stir and between chop and dice, so now he wanted to expand on that. He was going to try to bake something. He’d seen a recipe for triple chocolate cake and couldn’t help but think of Gabriel and he was gonna try and make it. He wanted to start early in case it took a couple tries to get it right and it did. The first one came out hard as a brick so he tried again. This one looked right and it seemed fluffy enough. Sam took a small bite and grimaced. He wasn’t really into sweets and this was like a sugar coma waiting to happen, but he figured it would be great for Gabriel. Making the frosting had turned into a whole new adventure and Sam wished that Gabriel had stocked canned frosting, but he supposed the archangel wasn’t really expecting Sam to bake a cake. He managed though and the frosting was a little on the thick side, but it worked. He doubted Gabriel would complain about too much frosting. There was still something missing though. Sam grinned as he walked over to the cabinets and pulled out Gabriel’s candy stash and opened up some of the peanut butter cups to arrange on top. Perfect. 

He did manage to get the first chapter of the book read like Gabriel suggested and was just playing around with some scales when he heard Gabriel get up. He was both excited and nervous about Gabriel’s reaction to his surprise and watched as he walked, half asleep to the table and then stop short at the sight that met him. Gabriel blinked a few times before turning to look at Sam. “What is this?” he asked suspiciously. 

“Well I’ve been getting better at the cooking thing so I wanted to try baking something, but I don’t really eat sweets so I baked you a cake,” Sam said proudly. 

“You do know poison doesn’t work on archangels, right?” Gabriel said narrowing his eyes as though trying to see through the hunter. 

Sam chuckled. “It’s not poisoned. I promise. I tried a bite and it nearly put me into a sugar coma so I figured it would be perfect for you,” he babbled a little nervously as he waited for Gabriel’s response. 

Gabriel snapped up a milkshake and after another suspicious look at the cake he tentatively tried a bite and bit back his moan. It was amazing and he was sure at least some of that was the fact that Sam had baked him a cake. Actually taken the time and judging by the look of the trash can at least two tries to do something nice for him and while it just made the cake taste better, it also annoyed him to no end. Partially because he found himself softening to Sam despite the fact that he knew Sam was just trying to use him to take the edge off the loneliness or being nice out of pity neither of which put Gabriel in the best of moods, but he couldn’t bring himself to snap at Sam when he was standing there looking like a puppy waiting for a belly rub so he settled on the middle ground. “Not bad,” he said evenly taking another large bite. 

Sam grinned brightly and gave himself a mental pat on the back. He hadn’t exactly expected Gabriel to start gushing over it, even if it was the best cake on the planet, but the fact that he had gotten a ‘not bad’ and not even in a snippy tone, meant that Gabriel must like it and actually accepted the fact that Sam had done something nice for him. That was a big win in Sam’s book. He went back to the piano to mess around a little more while he waited for Gabriel to finish eating and he didn’t even notice when Gabriel walked up behind him and watched him for a few minutes, so when Gabriel spoke, Sam jumped. “You’re holding your wrists at the wrong angle,” Gabriel observed. 

“What do you mean?” Sam asked. 

“It won’t matter much now for the basic stuff but once you get into the more advanced stuff it can make a big difference so it’s best not to get into bad habits,” Gabriel explained as he snapped his fingers and expanded the bench and sat next to Sam. “Like this,” Gabriel told him, showing him the right way. When Sam seemed to struggle with it, Gabriel sighed and reached over and maneuvered his hands into the right position. 

Sam bit back his smile as Gabriel took his hands. He had just been pretending he couldn’t get it to goad Gabriel into doing just that and then Gabriel really started teaching him. By the time Sam started yawning a few hours later he could play a few different chords and even a few basic melodies, not that he could put them together just yet of course, but he planned to drag these lessons out for a while anyway. All in all it was an enjoyable evening spent together and wasn’t that just a miracle in itself. Sam even managed to ask before he went to bed and Gabriel started playing, “Do you think you could play that Enochian one again?” 

“Enochian one?” Gabriel asked confused. He knew which one Sam was talking about, but how had he known it was Enochian. 

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t understand the words, but I’ve heard enough Enochian to recognize the language,” Sam said with a shrug, not realizing that Gabriel hadn’t realized he had been singing. 

“The…the words?” Gabriel asked wide-eyed. 

“Yeah, when you were singing it. You really should sing more. It’s nice,” Sam said with a sheepish shrug. “Goodnight, Gabriel.”

“Good…Goodnight, Sam,” Gabriel said feeling more than a little uncomfortable at the new realization but unable to deny Sam something as simple as a song request and if he sang with it…well it had nothing to do with Sam liking his singing. It was just so natural for him to sing along with that one that not doing so was harder than doing it. He was almost even able to convince himself of that.


	9. Chapter 9

Once he had finished playing Sam to sleep he stopped playing and ran a frustrated hand through his hair. What the hell was he doing? Actually buddying up to Sam. Letting himself enjoy spending time with him. He was setting himself up for a disaster far worse than them sleeping together had been. He was actually starting to let himself hope and no matter how hard he tried to quash it, he couldn’t get rid of it completely. To most people hope was a good thing, but Gabriel knew how dangerous it could be. He knew better, and that was what made it so galling. When it all came crashing down, as it inevitably would, it would be a nightmare. 

 

When Sam came out of the bathroom the next morning, he smiled at the music he heard. He stopped in the doorway, as he always did, and watched Gabriel play for a few minutes. The music was full of what Sam could only describe as cautious hope with an undercurrent of anger and Sam knew that Gabriel was just angry at himself for having hope. It meant that Sam was getting through to him. Sam decided to just let Gabriel play this morning and save the lessons for the evenings after Gabriel woke up. No need to get him all worked up before he went to bed. 

Sam saw that Gabriel had polished off the rest of the cake he had baked while he was sleeping so Sam decided to try another one. This time he got it right on the first try and topped it with Oreos instead of peanut butter cups just to add a little variety. He spent the rest of the day alternating between reading and playing around on the piano, pointedly not looking up from his book when he heard Gabriel stirring and even when he heard the archangel’s steps falter when he reached the table. He could just imagine the suspicious look Gabriel was giving it, having seen it for himself yesterday and it was all he could do to keep from chuckling. 

Sam chanced a glance up a few minutes later when Gabriel didn’t say anything and saw him chowing down on the cake and gave a self-satisfied smile. When Gabriel was finished, Sam joined him at the piano and they started another lesson right up until Sam started yawning again. That continued on for a week as Sam noticed Gabriel’s music getting more hopeful and less angry and even throwing in a little happiness, so Sam decided it was time to try a conversation. While Gabriel was eating his cake, Sam still baking him one every day, Sam sat at the table with him and started to talk. “I always liked music. I wanted to learn an instrument as a kid, but my dad wouldn’t let me. Even sports were barely acceptable. He wanted me to like things like the gun range and knife throwing and archery.”

“Your father’s an idiot,” Gabriel said something he had long thought but had been given the perfect opportunity to say. 

“I used to think so, but I’m wondering now if maybe he knew something about what would be coming for us and wanted us to be as prepared as we could be. I mean, he still should have let us be kids and all, but if he had an idea…”

“Maybe. But you’re right. He should have just let you be a kid. There are plenty of ways he could have helped you be ready without stealing your childhood,” Gabriel told him. 

Sam smiled warmly at Gabriel. He was actually getting conversation out of him. Sam figured it would be easier to open up to Gabriel first and get things moving. “I never really would have picked the piano to learn, but I like it. It’s…soothing,” Sam looked for the right word. 

“It is one of my favorites, but I can teach you something else if you’d rather,” Gabriel offered wondering why on earth he was letting himself get sucked in like this. 

“Nah. Maybe one day. Once I’m better at the piano, but I want to stick with this one for now. I’m having fun with it,” Sam said with a happy smile. It was getting harder and harder to hide his feelings for the archangel. Well hide any overt signs that is like kissing him or running his hands through Gabriel’s hair or even just coming out and saying it. He was giving plenty of small signs, hoping to keep Gabriel from running by avoiding the big stuff. He knew he couldn’t keep this up forever, but he was terrified of Gabriel’s reaction if he told him. He didn’t want this to end.

Sam was right that he couldn’t keep it up forever though. It was only another week…another week of cakes and lessons and light conversation over meals…before Gabriel broke. “What do you want from me Sam?” Gabriel asked wearily. 

Sam knew that it was now or never. He had to come clean and hope that he could pick up the pieces from the fallout. “I want YOU, Gabriel.”

Gabriel snorted derisively. “I’m your only option,” he snapped. 

“You know how you told me once that I only saw what I expected to see and that I needed to open my eyes? Well that goes both ways.” Gabriel scoffed and got up from the table, but Sam followed him. “I’ll grant you that if we hadn’t ended up in this position I would probably never be saying this, mostly because I wouldn’t have had the chance to see the real you,” Sam faltered as Gabriel started to play the piano attempting to drown him out, so he just spoke louder. “You were right that day you know. I was only seeing what I expected to see and I did know everything I needed to know how I felt about you, but you were wrong too. I DO want you, Gabriel. And maybe you’re right that I’m better off without you. I don’t know and I don’t care. I know what I WANT and that’s all I care about.” Gabriel’s music took on an angrier quality and Sam knew that Gabriel wasn’t going to hear him right now. The best he could hope for is that Gabriel would think about it and come to terms with it later so he skipped straight to the point. “I love you, Gabriel and I’m not going to give up on you. No matter what,” Sam said as he went to sit down on the couch as Gabriel pounded the keys violently. 

Stupid hunter. Did he really think that Gabriel was that gullible? He knew exactly what was going on. Sam wanted to get his rocks off again and figured since Gabriel was the only choice he needed to butter him up to get him into bed. It had been a few weeks after all. Sam was just trying to make the best of things. He knew how Gabriel felt about him and since they were trapped here together he wanted to make himself feel better too. That’s all this was. Sam didn’t love him. The entire thought was ridiculous. Once he had burned out the worst of the anger he knew that he had to nip this in the bud. He believed Sam wholeheartedly that he wasn’t going to give up. He was like a dog with a bone when he got something into his head. He stopped playing and spun to look at Sam. “And what about the fact that I kill people huh? You can just accept that?” he asked making it perfectly clear that he didn’t believe Sam for a minute. 

“You kill people who deserve it and as an archangel you have the ability to see just how guilty they are and not risk getting someone innocent. You save more lives than you take, and that’s a balance I’m not even qualified to judge,” Sam told him, having thought a lot on the subject in the time since Gabriel had told him what kind of people he killed. 

Gabriel got up and stalked over to the couch menacingly. “I’m not a nice guy, Sam. I’m cold and cruel and vicious. I get what I want and damn who I hurt in the process,” he said dangerously. 

Sam smirked. He knew better. “Cruel and vicious, maybe. To those who deserve it. But, cold? Not a chance. You may get what you want…and maybe you do stretch morals to do it, I don’t know, but you do care. If you didn’t you’d have had me a long time ago, no matter my choice on the matter,” Sam pointed out.


	10. Chapter 10

Gabriel sighed. It looked like Sam was going to carry this deception all the way to the end. He either had to give the hunter what he wanted or keep dealing with Sam trying to convince him that he actually loved him and he knew which was worse. No question, so he surged forward and kissed Sam hard and deep and when the hunter tried to pull Gabriel into his lap, Gabriel resisted and pulled Sam to his feet instead maneuvering them towards the bedroom before shoving the hunter against the wall again and ripping his shirt off. 

Sam hadn’t expected it to be this easy to get through to Gabriel, but he wasn’t going to complain as he kissed Gabriel back just as deeply. He took the roughness as all the pent-up frustration finally coming out, not that he didn’t enjoy the rough sex. He did. He would like to have it slow and sweet too though, but that could wait until next time. Sam stripped Gabriel’s shirt over his head and quickly started to undo the archangel’s pants only for Gabriel to return the favor. “G-Gabriel…bed,” Sam suggested, not really wanting to do this against the wall again and Gabriel picked him up and threw him on the bed, climbing on top of him as they kicked their pants the rest of the way off in the process. 

Gabriel figured he must be right about what Sam wanted with as eagerly as he was taking this and that just spurred him on more as he started pressing sharp bites and hard sucks over Sam’s neck and shoulders as the first finger slammed into him hard and fast. Sam’s hands tangled in Gabriel’s hair and clutched at his back as he ground his hips down in the finger that was fucking him and Gabriel quickly added a second. Sam pulled Gabriel up into another kiss by his hair and Gabriel kissed him hard as he thrust a third finger into Sam’s tight ass, swallowing the hunter’s hiss of pain since he wasn’t quite ready for that yet, but Gabriel didn’t care. 

Gabriel was nice enough to wait until Sam was ready for the next part before he leaned back and flipped him over and Sam quickly got to his hands and knees, only for Gabriel to shove his head down into the pillow as he once again pinned Sam’s hands above his head with one hand, lining himself up with the other and slamming into the hunter. Sam moaned as he pushed himself back for more and Gabriel set a hard and fast pace from the jump, reaching around with his free hand to jerk Sam off and leaning over to bite Sam’s shoulder as he felt himself reaching the edge and Sam along with him. He growled, “Cum, Sam,” and that was all it took to knock Sam off the edge and Gabriel slammed home one more time as he came in Sam’s ass. 

Sam’s first clue that things weren’t as he thought was when Gabriel was done and just shoved Sam onto the bed and scrambled off, grabbing for his clothes. He rolled over to look at Gabriel and the archangel snapped, “Next time you want me to fuck you just say so and can all the love crap. I’m not that stupid,” as he stormed out slamming the door behind him and leaving Sam lying in the bed wondering what the hell just happened. 

Sam’s brain hadn’t quite kicked on just yet so he could be forgiven for the fact that it took him a few minutes to realize that Gabriel must think he just said all that because he wanted to get laid. It took another few minutes before he realized that he needed to put a stop to that train of though, and then a few more to get his limbs to work again so he could get up and get dressed and follow Gabriel back out to the living room. 

“I’m not in the mood to play you a lullaby tonight Sam,” he sneered when he heard the door open. “Just go to bed.”

Gabriel was sitting at the kitchen table with his back to Sam so the hunter wouldn’t see his tears, so he didn’t see Sam walking over until the hunter kneeled on the floor next to him. “I didn’t just want to get laid, Gabriel,” he said gently reaching up to wipe the tears from Gabriel’s face before his hand was slapped away and Gabriel turned in the chair so that he was facing away from Sam again. Sam sighed and got up and walked over to the other side and again kneeled, this time in front of Gabriel. “I do love you, Gabriel, and I don’t care how long it takes to convince you of that, I meant what I said. I’m not giving up.”

“Sam…just…stop okay…please. I know…you’re trying to make things better, but you’re not…you’re making them worse,” Gabriel said heartbrokenly. 

“I can’t stop loving you, Gabe. And even if I could, I wouldn’t. You want me to stop saying it, fine, but you can’t stop me from showing it. I’ll stop saying it, stop pushing, if you promise not to stop talking to me or giving me piano lessons. If you promise not to go back to the shell you were before, walking around snapping all the time, I’ll let this go for now,” Sam offered a compromise. He couldn’t stand seeing Gabriel all torn up like this and Gabriel’s tears were killing him. 

“Fine. But not tonight. Just go to bed,” Gabriel said desperate to get the hunter to go away. He would have agreed to anything to stop this. He couldn’t deal with this. Not now. 

“Okay,” Sam said softly, reaching up again and using his thumbs to wipe away the archangel’s tears, quickly pulling away before Gabriel could slap him away again. “Goodnight, Gabriel,” he whispered as he got up and headed to bed. He didn’t get a response, but he hadn’t expected one either. No sooner than he had closed the door behind him, he heard the telltale crash of something shattering against the wall. He briefly considered going back out there, but decided against it. It would just make things worse. 

It took Sam a long time to fall asleep that night and when he did, he slept fitfully. He just couldn’t get the broken expression on Gabriel’s face out of his head. Had he done the wrong thing by telling him how he felt? Should he have kept his mouth shut and made up some other excuse when Gabriel asked? Unfortunately, he suspected that it wouldn’t have mattered. No matter when he had said something the result would have been the same. Gabriel thought that Sam couldn’t love him because he didn’t think he was deserving of that love and Sam had no idea how to fix it. All he could do is just be there and hope that time solved the problem and opened Gabriel’s eyes.


	11. Chapter 11

Once Sam was in the bedroom, Gabriel couldn’t hold back anymore and chucked the glass cake pan, cake and all, at the wall as hard as he could before putting his head in his hands as the tears flowed freely. Why the hell couldn’t Sam just drop it? Why wouldn’t he just leave it alone? Did he want to see Gabriel completely broken? Wasn’t it bad enough already? Did he really need to finish the job? Gabriel didn’t even realize how long he sat there like that until he heard Sam get up and realized that it was morning. He waited until Sam came out before he made his way for the bedroom without a word. He would live up to his promise when he woke up. Once he was in a better frame of mind. 

Sam watched him go with a worried frown on his face and looked around to see that Gabriel hadn’t even cleaned up the mess from where he had apparently chucked Sam’s cake at the wall and Sam went from worried to downright alarmed. Gabriel had never left a mess like that. It’s not that Gabriel was a neat freak or anything, but when cleaning up was as simple as snapping his fingers…well there was little point in not. Apparently, Sam had sent him into such a tailspin that he couldn’t even be bothered with that much and Sam felt even more like shit than he had the night before. He wished he had never said anything. He hated how badly Gabriel was hurting right now and it was all his fault. He blinked his own tears from his eyes as he began sweeping up as much of the glass as he could before cleaning up the cake itself. 

Once that was done, he made his breakfast and considered whether or not he should bake Gabriel a cake today. On one hand, it would just be a reminder of all this, but on the other hand, if he didn’t then Gabriel might think that Sam really was lying about his feelings and had given up the charade. If he thought that would make Gabriel feel better, he would gladly pretend, but he knew that would make matters worse, so as little as his heart was in it, he still baked the archangel a cake. He wasn’t sure how well Gabriel was sleeping so he didn’t dare play around with the piano. If Gabriel was sleeping as fitfully as Sam had, the slightest noise could wake him. 

Since Gabriel had gone to bed so early, he woke up earlier than usual too while Sam was cooking his dinner. Sam heard the bathroom sink running and winced as he realized that Gabriel must be trying to wash away all evidence of his breakdown from last night. Gabriel had occasionally showered, probably needing the change in routine but not actually needing a shower to keep himself clean, but he never used any other part of the bathroom. Sam couldn’t help but be grateful for it though. The last thing he wanted was the visual reminder of all the pain he had caused the archangel. He didn’t need to see the dried tear tracks or the puffy eyes, and he stayed silent as Gabriel came out of the bathroom and stumbled sleepily over to the table, faltering in his steps again as he saw the cake, but he sat down and started eating it rather than throwing it at the wall again like Sam was sure he had been tempted to do. 

Gabriel was about halfway done when Sam sat down with his food. He wasn’t going to hold Gabriel to his promise just yet and start a conversation, but Gabriel did. “So you still want piano lessons?” Gabriel asked trying to break the ice and make sure his embarrassing behavior from last night didn’t become a topic of conversation. 

“Yeah. I do. I was hoping I could just listen to you play for a little while first though. I missed it yesterday,” Sam said and that was the closest he would get to bringing it up. He wanted Gabriel to feel a little more relaxed before he tried to get close again. 

Gabriel just shrugged and finished off his milkshake, covered the cake, and walked over to the piano and started playing. The melody was so hauntingly sad that it made Sam choke up, but he knew that this was how Gabriel dealt with his feelings. He would do anything to make him feel better though, but didn’t know what he could do that wouldn’t just make it worse. Sam gave it a good hour before he went over and sat next to Gabriel on the bench. Gabriel played a few minutes longer before he stopped and turned to Sam, looking a little more put together than he had before and Sam was glad that he finally did something right. The lesson was more stiff and professional than it had been before, and Sam hoped that it would relax over time. It did. 

The stilted conversations also relaxed a great deal over the next few weeks and when Gabriel played now, it was gaining a little bit of happiness back into it. It was almost a month since the breakdown when Gabriel was so horny he just couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to bite the bullet. He pulled Sam into the bedroom before pushing him against the wall, kissing him hard, and Sam kissed him back for a minute, but when Gabriel’s hands went to Sam’s shirt the hunter caught them and pushed him back a little bit. Gabriel couldn’t help the hurt he felt. Sam wouldn’t even touch him now? He tried to turn and walk away, but Sam didn’t let go. 

“Not like that, Gabriel,” Sam said softly as he let go of one of Gabriel’s wrists and cupped the archangel’s cheek and leaned in and kissed him soft and sweet. Sam had considered stopping it altogether, but he had seen the pain in Gabriel’s eyes at the idea of rejection so he abandoned that idea, but if they were going to do this, then Sam was going to make sure that Gabriel knew it was more than just a roll in the hay to take the edge off. He backed Gabriel up to the bed and laid him gently on it before sliding on top of him and kissed him again slowly. If Gabriel wouldn’t believe Sam’s words, then he would show him how he felt. 

Sam slid his hands under Gabriel’s shirt, caressing the archangel’s smooth skin, barely managing to suppress his wince when he felt the hard scar that he hadn’t had a chance to notice before he wondered whether that was where Lucifer had killed him, or tried to. Sam had never managed to get clarification on that yet. He could tell that Gabriel was hesitant about this whole thing, with his hands resting on Sam’s biceps and not moving, but Gabriel was kissing him back and hadn’t told him to stop or pushed him away so he kept going. He knew why Gabriel was hesitating after all. It was a good long while before Sam started tugging invitingly at Gabriel’s shirt and the archangel lifted up enough to let Sam remove it and Gabriel’s hands finally moved to the buttons on Sam’s shirt and started to unbutton it with shaking hands as Sam’s lips moved over his jaw and to his neck, pressing gentle kisses and licks to the soft skin there. 

As Gabriel slid Sam’s shirt off his shoulders, Sam moved his way down over Gabriel’s collarbones and to his chest, pausing over Gabriel’s nipples as the archangel’s breathing sped up noticeably, and then kissing over the angry looking scar on his chest, but Sam didn’t stop there. He kept moving down, dipping his tongue in Gabriel’s belly button as his hands moved to unbutton Gabriel’s pants. As Sam slid them off and got his first good look at Gabriel’s swollen cock, he wanted so badly to taste him. He licked lightly over the tip, lapping up the precum there, and causing Gabriel to arch up off the bed with a whimper as his hand tangled in Sam’s hair. Sam swirled his tongue around the tip before lowering his head and taking Gabriel in his mouth and the archangel let out a low moan. 

Sam set out to give the best blowjob he could manage. Other than that one boyfriend he’d had in college before Jess, he’d never done this before, but judging by Gabriel’s reactions he wasn’t doing so bad. A few minutes later a tube of lube was pressed into his hands and Sam moaned around Gabriel’s length. He would love nothing more than to bury himself in his angel and quickly slicked his fingers up before he pressed lightly against the tight ring of muscles, giving Gabriel a chance to stop him if he’d misunderstood, but when Gabriel didn’t he slid in, taking a moment to find the sweet spot, but he knew he found it when Gabriel’s hand tightened in his hair and he let out a keening moan. Sam could tell that Gabriel was getting close and he wanted him to cum in his mouth so badly, so he picked up the pace, paying more attention to the pleasure button, and Gabriel was thrusting up into his mouth. When Sam felt the first string of warm salty liquid hit his throat, he almost choked, but he swallowed in time and just kept swallowing everything Gabriel spilled. 

Once the archangel was spent, Sam moved up to kiss him again, keeping his finger moving slowly in him but making no move to go further. “Keep going?” he whispered against Gabriel’s lips. Gabriel nodded and snaked his tongue out as Sam kissed him deeply, pressing a second finger inside him and scissoring them to stretch Gabriel out. It was all Sam could do, not to start telling Gabriel how much he loved him, so it was best to keep his mouth occupied with other things and when he needed air, he moved to kiss and lick over Gabriel’s neck again as a third finger joined the first two. 

Once Gabriel was ready, Sam quickly removed his pants and slicked his cock up, lining up with Gabriel’s entrance and kissing him softly as he slid in slowly. Gabriel was clutching Sam’s back as he lifted his hips for more, but Sam kept it slow and once he was fully seated he paused, breaking the kiss and resting his forehead against Gabriel’s as he tried to rein himself in before he blew too soon. He had forgotten how incredible this felt. Gabriel wriggled beneath him trying to get him to move so he did. He drew out and pressed back in slowly, pulling back enough to look Gabriel in the eye as he brushed a lock of sweat slick hair from the archangel’s forehead, before pressing a kiss there. 

He’d drawn it out so long that he knew he wasn’t going to be able to last long and hoped that he’d gotten his point across as his pace picked up and his lips found Gabriel’s again, though they were more just panting into each other’s mouths than kissing. Sam’s hand went to Gabriel’s cock which was hard and leaking again by now and he stroked him in time with his thrusts. He wanted Gabriel to cum again first, but he didn’t know how much longer he could hold back as his movements became frantic and he felt his orgasm being pulled from him and when he came with a low moan, Gabriel wasn’t far behind him. 

Sam kissed Gabriel again deep and slow as he rode out the wave and when he was spent, he pulled back and whispered, “Stay?…just for a little while?...please?” 

Gabriel nodded again and Sam slowly pulled out and curled up to the archangel’s side, head resting on his chest, arm wrapped around his stomach and a leg draped over Gabriel’s as if that would hold him there if he wanted to leave.


	12. Chapter 12

Gabriel felt the tears stinging his eyes as his defenses fell away. He ran a shaky hand through Sam’s hair and he said weakly, “You don’t love me,” making one last effort to keep himself from falling off that particular cliff. 

“Yes,” Sam said assuredly. “I do.”

“You’re just saying that because we’re trapped here, all alone,” Gabriel said sadly. 

Sam propped himself up on his elbow and said, “Gabriel, look at me.” He waited until Gabriel caught his eyes before he continued. “Being trapped here like this gave me the chance to get to know you. To take my blinders off and see you for who you are. That is where this situation’s impact ends. Even if we get out of here and make it back to the real world it will change nothing. I love you, no matter where we are, or what situation we’re in.” 

“So if we do get out of here, you’ll go tell your brother and the old guy and everyone you know that you fell in love with the trickster archangel and we’ll be together out there no matter how bad they take it?” Gabriel asked skeptically. 

“Absolutely,” Sam said without hesitation. 

“Sam…please…I…I can’t…” Gabriel choked on his words. 

“I love you, Gabriel, and I swear this isn’t a trick or an attempt to make you feel better about this, or anything else you may be fearing. I love you. Period. No matter what,” Sam said earnestly. 

“I…I love you, Sam,” Gabriel said closing his eyes in a failed attempt to stop the tears from falling. 

Sam reached out and traced his thumb over the archangel’s cheeks before kissing him gently. Sam shifted so that Gabriel was curled up to Sam’s side and he wrapped his arms around the archangel, feeling the relieved tears falling on his chest as he ran a hand through Gabriel’s hair soothingly. “I love you Gabe,” he whispered again, happy that they had finally gotten here. 

They lay like that for a good long while before Sam started to yawn. “I should let you get some sleep,” Gabriel said as he started to get up. 

“Stay?” Sam asked hopefully tightening his arms around Gabriel. “At least until I fall asleep?” Sam hoped Gabriel would stay all night and hopefully get their sleeping cycles synced up now that they were together. Assuming they were actually together. They hadn’t been completely clear on that. 

“You don’t want music?” Gabriel asked curiously. 

“I’d rather have you,” Sam said pressing a short kiss to Gabriel’s lips. “I wouldn’t say no if you wanted to sing to me though. I love your voice.”

Gabriel started to sing the old Enochian lullaby and Sam smiled contentedly and pulled Gabriel closer and the archangel snuggled happily into Sam’s side as he sang. Once Sam was good and asleep he couldn’t bring himself to leave so just closed his eyes and went to sleep too. 

Sam woke first the next morning and was startled for a moment to feel a weight draped across his chest and then he remembered last night and looked down fondly at Gabriel. It seemed his hopes were founded. Gabriel had decided to sleep with him. When he felt Gabriel start to stir a few minutes later, Sam ran a hand through his hair and whispered, “Good morning, beautiful.”

Gabriel looked up in alarm, but Sam just kissed him slow and sweet as the memories from the night before flooded back into his mind. He couldn’t believe that he had cried all over Sam like that. More than that, he couldn’t believe that Sam didn’t seem to care. No jokes or mocking or annoyance. Once the kiss ended, Gabriel couldn’t help but grin and press one more quick kiss to Sam’s lips as he got out of bed and reached for his clothes. Sam got up and headed for the shower and by the time he got out, Gabriel was flipping pancakes onto a plate for him while making his own chocolate, chocolate chip pancakes. Sam chuckled and said, “You’re cooking?” 

“I wanted to make you breakfast this time,” Gabriel said with a happy smile. 

“Well you won’t see me complaining,” Sam said going over for a kiss. “I love you, Gabriel,” he said softly. 

“I…I love you too, Sam,” Gabriel only stumbled a little over the words. They felt so foreign. He’d dreamed of this for so long and now he had it and it still seemed surreal. He hoped and prayed that Sam really had meant everything he said before because if he lost Sam now he didn’t know if he’d survive. 

While they were eating they had a visitor. “Chuck!” Sam exclaimed at the same time Gabriel fell to his knees and said, “Father. I’m so sorry…”

“Gabriel, stop,” Chuck said as Sam was stunned silent trying to wrap his head around the fact that the prophet was, in fact, God. “This was never meant as a punishment and I am deeply sorry about the pain it caused you. This was always a gift. A reward.”

“Why?” Sam asked in awe. 

“Gabriel would have never stopped running from you long enough for you to see him, Sam. And perhaps you would never have had a reason to look beyond your own assumptions to do so,” God explained before turning back to Gabriel. “A soulmate is a precious thing as you well know, Gabriel, and the fact that you were willing to give yours up in order to save the world…my world…fills me with both pride and sorrow. I sought to give you back what you had lost.”

“So you were there? All the time? And you did nothing?” Sam asked incredulously. 

“I left heaven so that my children could find their own way and stop looking to me for approval with every breath. Interferring overtly in what they chose to do would have defeated the purpose. I was there though Sam and I did help. I brought Castiel back. Twice. I brought Gabriel back. I got him the information he needed to help you reopen the cage. I pulled you out of that church when Lucifer rose and cleaned the demon blood from your system. I gave you the strength to overpower Lucifer’s control. I led your brother to the correct graveyard to get through to you. My help may not have been overt, but I did help as much as I could without revealing myself.”

“A parent is supposed to tell their children when they’re doing wrong. Not just clean up their messes,” Sam said pointedly. 

“Perhaps. But you don’t understand my relationship with the angels. They didn’t breathe without permission. It was not like a human parent child relationship. Were I to reveal myself they would become completely subservient again…get up Gabriel,” he said to prove his point since Gabriel was still kneeling. “And Gabriel has gone the farthest of all of them towards free will. Were I to express my displeasure with their actions, they could very likely take their lives in penance. I have no wish to cause them pain. They will know that I did not approve by the simple fact that it did not happen. There is no need to make things more difficult.”

“So what happens now?” Sam asked nervously. 

“Now, you will be released to go back to your lives. As an added gift, time has not passed in the outside world while you were here. Your brother has not yet left the graveyard and you can rejoin him there,” Chuck told him. “I will give you some time to discuss any matters you wish to. Just pray to me when you are ready to return.” 

Sam and Gabriel were suddenly alone in the house again and Sam looked over to Gabriel to see the fear and doubt shining in his eyes. “I meant what I said, Gabriel. I want you out there just as much as I want you here. Just give me the day to explain everything to Dean and Bobby? You can join us for dinner…or take me somewhere for dinner if they have an issue with it.”

“A-are you sure, Sam?” Gabriel asked biting his lip nervously. 

“Absolutely,” Sam said pulling Gabriel to him. “I love you, Gabe. No matter what. Never forget that.” Gabriel kissed him deeply and when they broke apart, Sam started to laugh. Before Gabriel could get worked up wondering what he was laughing about he said, “Do you realize…that God himself…just essentially locked us in a closet to work things out?” Gabriel snorted in an attempt not to laugh before he couldn’t help it anymore and he laughed long and hard with Sam. “Now, what say we finish our breakfast and then make love one more time here before we go back to the real world and start our life together,” Sam suggested once they were laughed out. 

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Gabriel said happily.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By popular request, the conversation with Dean :)

When Sam and Gabriel were ready to go back they prayed to God and Sam found himself back in the graveyard, standing where he had just fallen as Dean and Bobby headed back to their vehicles. Gabriel had left as soon as they arrived to hook back up with Sam later. “Dean!” Sam called running towards him. 

Dean spun around with wide eyes. “S-Sammy? What…how…” he asked even while heading towards him and pulling him into a crushing hug. 

“It’s a long story,” Sam told him. “Let’s just get the hell out of here huh?”

“Yeah. Okay,” Dean said surrepticiously wiping his eyes as Bobby pulled Sam into a hug the second Dean released him. 

“Wait till we get back to my place for that story wouldja,” he asked hopefully. 

“Sure thing, Bobby,” Sam promised and they were all in the car on the road for Sioux Falls. 

Dean kept looking at Sam like he was going to disappear and with more than a little suspicion. Sam seemed different and he couldn’t quite figure out why. He was pretty sure that Lucifer couldn’t fool him for a second, but he was still concerned. They were halfway there before Dean managed to put his finger on exactly what was different about his brother. “You’re happy,” he said confused. 

Sam couldn’t help but grin. “Yeah, Dean. I am. Lucifer is locked away. The apocalypse is over. And there’s some other stuff that I’ll get into once we’re back to Bobby’s but yeah. I’m happy.”

Dean grimaced. That wasn’t like Sam at all. Sam was never happy. He resigned himself to waiting until Bobby’s…and testing him thoroughly…before getting the answers he wanted. It seemed like Bobby was impatient too, because he was driving like a bat out of hell and even Dean was hard pressed to keep up with him. 

No sooner than they had walked in the door, Dean rounded on Sam and said, “Okay spill.”

“First drink,” Bobby said handing him a shot of holy water.

“Right,” Dean said, grabbing his silver knife and his angel blade and Sam rolled his eyes good-naturedly and took the shot, pulled the silver knife and the angel blade across his arm. When there was no sizzling or leaking grace from the wounds, Dean said again, “Okay. NOW spill.”

“Okay so first thing you should know is that from my point of view it’s been three months since I fell in the hole,” Sam started. 

“So you’ve been in hell for three months?” Dean asked with a wince. 

“No. Not hell. Um…this is gonna be kinda hard to believe but…um…God saved me. He’s Chuck by the way,” Sam continued. 

“No way! You mean he was right here under our noses the whole time and didn’t do anything?!” Dean said heatedly. 

“Apparently he did a whole lot that we just didn’t see, but I still agree with you. He didn’t do enough, but that’s beside the point and if you keep interrupting me I’ll never get through this,” Sam said amusedly. 

“Right. Go on,” Dean said impatiently. “So God saved you and where have you been?”

“I’ve been in…I guess another dimension or something with…um…with Gabriel…”

“Gabriel!” Dean exclaimed getting a pointed look from Sam, so he shut his mouth and motioned for Sam to continue. 

“He essentially locked Gabriel and I into this little house with nothing to do but stare at the walls because he wanted us to learn to get along because…well…Gabriel and I are soulmates,” Sam said waiting for the explosion. 

“Oh hell no!” Dean said throwing up his hands. “No way. Uh-uh. Not gonna happen. Wasn’t Ruby enough of a monster for you, you gotta go get involved with the archdouche?”

“First, he’s not a monster. He’s an archangel and the only decent archangel there is…”

“He kills people, Sam!” Dean argued. 

“He kills rapist and murderers, so I don’t care,” Sam argued back. “I don’t care what you think of him. If you don’t want him around then we’ll take off, but he’s not going anywhere without me,” Sam said firmly. 

“How the hell is he even alive?” Dean asked annoyed. 

“God brought him back, just like Cas,” Sam told him. He could see that Dean was struggling with the situation and offered a compromise. “How about this…Gabriel and I will take a little vacation, say a week or so. You can go to Lisa like you planned. We’ll take some time for you to wrap your head around things and then decide where we stand.”

“You still want me to go to Lisa?” Dean asked startled. He’d assumed that since Sam was out that they would be hunting again. 

“Of course I do. That’s what you want. That’s what will make you happy. I want out too, Dean. You know that. All of our unfinished business is done. Yellow-eyes is dead, you’re free of hell, apocalypse averted. We can rest now,” Sam told him. 

“It’s not that easy to get out, Sam. You should know that,” Dean pointed out. He’d had every intention of trying once he’d lost everything. If Sam was gone. But now that he wasn’t…pretending that it would work would be that much harder.

“It can be when you’ve got an archangel on speed dial,” Sam said with a smirk.

“If I even accept him,” Dean said pointedly. 

“Let me put it this way, Dean. I’m out of hunting. I’m with Gabriel. I don’t care if you accept it or not. You don’t want us around fine, but don’t just expect me to abandon you to whatever monsters come calling. Go to Lisa. We’ll make sure you guys are safe and you never have to see us again if you don’t want to.”

“So that’s it. You get a boyfriend and ditch your family?” Dean asked incredulously. 

“I don’t want to ditch my family, Dean. That decision’s on you. All I’m saying is that Gabriel’s not negotiable.” Sam looked nervously at his watch. It was almost time for Gabriel to pop in and they had nothing resolved yet. Almost as if he were summoned by the thought, Gabriel appeared and Sam didn’t dare hesitate, despite the lack of resolution, lest Gabriel fear he was rethinking his decision here. He reached out and put an arm around Gabriel, pressing a quick welcoming kiss to his lips. 

Dean grimaced at the sight and glared at Gabriel. “Just go,” he said in annoyance. 

“Okay,” Sam said with a shrug. “You have my number if you change your mind.”

“Sam, wait,” Bobby said before they could disappear. “Give us a minute,” he said gruffly to Dean. Once they were alone, Bobby turned to Sam and said, “I don’t care what your idjit brother thinks, you’re always welcome here.” He hesitated noticeably before saying, “Both of you.”

“Thanks Bobby. I know he’ll come around. He just needs some time. We’ll stop by again soon,” Sam assured him. 

“You better.”

After Sam and Gabriel left, Dean got a blistering lecture from Bobby and then went to Lisa like Sam asked. He had been right about one thing. He did want out. He wanted to make a life with Lisa and Ben. He just hoped it worked. After she got the whole story, Lisa too urged him to make peace with his brother’s decisions. It took less than two weeks before Dean called Sam, and while he didn’t apologize per se, it was implied and they ended up having a normal brotherly relationship. They had a barbeque once a week at Dean’s house and spent the day, plus holidays and Dean, Lisa, and Ben spent a month in the summer at Gabriel’s private beach. 

Gabriel had, of course, warded Dean and Lisa’s home and even slapped some wards on Lisa and Ben themselves just to be safe. They all had standing orders to pray if they ever got in trouble. Sam and Gabriel bonded a year later, extending Sam’s life to forever so that Gabriel would never have to lose him and they continued watching over Dean’s descendants, and even stopped by heaven from time to time, when they could manage to sneak in, to hang out, but other than those visits, Gabriel never stepped foot back in heaven and no one outside of the family ever even knew he was alive.


End file.
